what would you put inside a knitting travel/survival tin?

[hgflower]

whenever i take projects outside of the house with me, i usually bring along an altoid tin that has tiny scissors, a measuring tape, a nail file, safety pins, and a crafting needle (not the official name, but y'know.. giant needle for weaving in ends); and one of my knitting friends has a birthday coming up. i want to make her a similar knitting survival tin, but with a theme of some sort (haven't quite decided yet) and i was wondering if there's anything else i should add?
probably some home made stitch markers, but is there anything else that i'm leaving out? if i could figure out a way to make a tiny needle guage that would fit inside the tin, that would be so cool.
what do you guys consider a necessary tool to have with you when you're knitting? maybe some stitch holders? a hair tie? (cause i'm ghetto and instead of getting those end things for my needles, i just bind them together with my hair tie  )
anyways, thanks in advance!

[ysolda]

making a tiny needle gauge might be pretty difficult - although I guess if you could find someone with a decent set of drill bits it wouldn't be too hard. I have seen some pretty small ones though.
How about a row counter, I rarely use one but she might find it useful. Cute stitch markers are a must and stitch holders would probably be useful, although I'm not sure whether you'd get them in a little tin.
It's a really cute idea, I was thinking of doing something similar for a friend that I just taught to knit. Depending on how advanced she is maybe you could print out a list of abbreviations, that could be handy.

[hgflower]

It's a really cute idea, I was thinking of doing something similar for a friend that I just taught to knit. Depending on how advanced she is maybe you could print out a list of abbreviations, that could be handy.

that is a very good idea!!

[fluffyhelen]

Knitting needle gauge checker
Stitch holder (a proper one, as opposed to a piece of yarn like I use..)
A pair of small scissors
A "crafting needle" (I keep mine in the pocket in my purse, then I ALWAYS have it..)
A notepad and pencil
Pom pom maker

OK so these wouldn't fit in an altoids tin but I made up a small knitting essentials bag for a friends birthday recently and these are some of the things I included!

I also gave her a circular needle suitable for making a hat and typed out instructions on how to make a basic hat using one.

I have a "knitting artbin storage bag" thing.  The most useful thing which I've been given has got to be a knitting needle roll though, by a long shot.  I always lose my knitting needles!

Oooo.. a pair of needle end covers, to stop work sliding off the knitting needles too. 

[JBoudreau]

A couple of different sized crochet hooks for fixing stitches that have mysteriously run away...every time I take my knitting out of the house, it seems like it happens to me!

And yeah, I'm with fluffyhelen, definitely a pair of needle end covers.

[djinnj]

You can fit a table of the most common knitting needle size conversions (US, metric, UK, and Japanese) on a standard business card if you use a small enough font.  Depending on her experience level, a chart of yarn weights and minimum yardage for general projects might be handy, and something marked so she can do wraps per inch in a yarn shop.  A measuring tape for use on projects.

[Tamantha]

One of those teeny tiny bottles of spirits you get in hotel room bars.

Although, maybe that's just me. And I'd definitely need more than one, depending on what I was working on.

Maybe a cable needle?

[m*babylon]

i think stitch markers are an absolutel must.  i can't tell you how often i lose one, especially in the car (as a passenger, of course!) i've had markers slip off my needles and fall under the seat.
small rubber needle protectors
a tiny bottle of hand lotion
a couple of mini-balls of yarn to use as scrap yarn
row counter

but definitely stitch markers.

[amey]

I think someone here posted a business card sized needle list - so you could see what you already had when you were out shopping.  That would be handy to have with you.  The standard abbreviations should also fit on a business card - you could mount it to the lid of the tin on the inside.

Have you seen this: http://knitcouture.com/prod.itml/icOid/18 - it might give you an idea.  I think a tiny notepad and a golf sized pencil/tiny pen would be wonderfully handy sometimes.

~amey

[hgflower]

oh wow! thanks for that link
and thanks to everyone for your suggestions!! i think i'm gonna have to do a mini shopping trip before i start on this